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Live Reviews : The Dillinger Escape Plan & Caligula’s Horse @ Max Watts, Brisbane 30/08/2015

By on August 31, 2015

Words: Jake Patton

Images: Amanda Brenchley

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I keep saying it but Australia is really being spoilt at the moment and it’s a great time to be a fan of heavy music. There are so many tours going on at the moment that there can be anywhere between one to three international acts performing during the one week, and it’s great to see fans getting out in force to the shows. Tonight was no different, and just like how leaving food out will attract a swarm of ants, putting a The Dillinger Escape Plan show on during any night of the week – including a Sunday night is bound to bring out a swarms of fans.

Tonight’s show was summed up beautifully before the first band had even taken the stage. You always know that when a member of the headliners road crew is giving a briefing to security about how hectic the show is going to be that you are in for something special.

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By the time that Brisbane locals Caligula’s Horse took the stage, the venue had half filled out. This was a good turnout for them and mirrored the crowds that they have had earlier in the year supporting Opeth and Mastodon. It was never going to be an easy task for the band, and to quote front man Jim Grey himself, Caligula’s Horse tonight had ‘the impossible task of getting the crowd ready for the onslaught that was to be The Dillinger Escape Plan’. While playing an admirable set, covering old hits and new ones from their upcoming album “Bloom”, there was just something different for me about Caligula’s Horse tonight. They played really tightly, but for some reason the energy just felt different to the countless other times I have seen them live this year. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big Caligula’s Horse fan, and they did a really good job, but there was just something amiss for me.

Walking out to the blinding flashes of the strobe lights to a now packed out room was perhaps the perfect metaphor for the upcoming show – fast, flashy, loud and in your face, and from the outset, The Dillinger Escape Plan poured everything into their show. During opener ‘Prancer’, guitarist Ben Weinman had managed to jump off his stompbox and also the drumkit, while front man Greg Puciato had seemingly made eye contact with every member in in the first two rows and had thrown a microphone stand into the crowd for a sing-along. This is energy that you would be lucky to see once during an entire performance, and not something which happens in the first three minutes of a show. The other band members did a great job in harnessing that energy, but none as good as the two already mentioned.

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Probably the greatest thing about going to a The Dillinger Escape Plan show is watching the crowd going nuts like they are fighting over the last reduced plasma screen TV during Boxing Day sales, with the band not even asking them to do so. Most bands these days give you the ‘circle pit’ or ‘jump’ mantra during every instrumental passage that they can fit it into – but not The Dillinger Escape Plan. From the first note tonight the crowd went as crazy as piranhas during a feeding frenzy and didn’t let up until the band had walked off stage and the final note had rung out. This is the sort of fan that the band has cultivated from its inception and one of the things that make them the type of strong band that they are today.

I always find it quite funny that it seems that anything that isn’t nailed to the ground is likely going to be climbed on, jumped off or thrown at one point or another at a Dillinger show. In this regard, the bands antics are world renowned. I’m not sure if it was due to the fact that there wasn’t much stuff for Greg to climb onto, or if it was due to the smaller stage, or a combination of both, but they made tonight work with a lot less of the theatrics than normal. I guess this is further testament to how their music speaks to the fans.

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The setlist was one which I didn’t expect, and covered a good blend of their older and their most recent material, with my highlights being “43% burnt”, “Happiness is a Smile” and “One of Us”, but it was the finish that topped off the whole night for me. Performing an encore of ‘Farewell’ and ‘When I Lost My Bet’, Greg, Kevin and Ben joined the crowd, with Greg and Kevin launching themselves onto the crowd from stage (guitar and all in Kevin’s case) for a few final hectic moments. It was pure elation for the fans to join the band members in the pit and further reinforced the sentiment that this is a band that really cares about its fans.

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band that you have to see at least once in your life. They are probably the greatest live band doing the rounds at the moment. There is an energy to their shows that is so in your face (and if your brave enough to stand on a barrier, then for majority of the show it is directly in your face), and unparalleled. Call me a fan boy but if anyone can attend one of these shows and not feel that glorious feeling of elation or exhilaration at least once during the set, then I don’t know of any live band that will be able to do so.

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